


Heroes

by hilarychuff



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Captured, Gen, Hostage Situation, Team
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-15
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-01 16:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1046213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hilarychuff/pseuds/hilarychuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team contemplates what it means to be a hero when things go wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Simmons

**Author's Note:**

> this is a weird drabble that happened during class and tbh i'm not sure just yet where it's going.

She knows she's not the hero of the story. She's the scientist, resigned to the laboratory and beakers and test tubes, and maybe she sometimes saves the day, but she knows she's not the hero. 

If life were a story, Ward would be the hero. It's clear enough. He's the strong, gruff man who needs to learn how to trust, to love, before he can properly open himself up to others. He's the rough-around-the-edges agent, capable in his job and lonely at home. 

She thinks, somewhere in the story, she's probably the plot point, the expendable scientist sacrificed for the sake of the hero's lesson learned. He's got to work with the rest of the team to be successful. He's got to realize that losing people is inevitable so he must embrace them while he has them. 

It figures, then, that she's the one alone in an empty room. It's her sacrifice. For the story. 

One of the many cracks in the walls open and a dark-haired man walks through, then another and another and another. She stands nervously, her knees quaking, but she knows what happens, then. She's the expendable scientist. 

They take her by the arms and lead her out of the room.


	2. Ward

He's seen heroes before and he knows he doesn't want to be one. There's too much responsibility with heroism, too much altruism, and while he believes in the greater good he also believes in being selfish sometimes. Heroes save the day, save the world - he just wants to save his team. 

They'd gotten Simmons somehow, no one seems to really be sure how she'd slipped through the cracks before they were back on the Bus, but they'd gotten her. He can't be fucked to worry about saving the day but he can't live with himself if he doesn't save her. 

They're a team, all of them, as much as he doesn't always want to admit it, each puzzle piece fitting together seamlessly. Without her, there's a jagged, misshapen hole torn through the middle. He never had much patience for puzzles growing up, but there's no way he's letting this one go unfinished. 

He doesn't want to be a hero or even heroic and he keeps that in mind against each shadowy figure in the dark hallway as they perform dances choreographed to the dulcet tones of grunts and snapping bone and skull against hard rock. Heroes show mercy, favoring disabling and apprehending over injuring, but he can't help the well of satisfaction in the pit of his belly when an eye socket cracks under the heel of his palm and he doesn't want to. He doesn't want a fight, he wants a fucking slaughter. 

Being a hero means the greater good, but it also means body counts and collateral damage. He doesn't want to be a hero - just a puzzle piece.


	3. Fitz

He never thought he could be a hero growing up. He played hero often enough, sure, but by the time he'd hit the age of eleven and realized he liked maths well better than he liked football or rugby he'd thought it would only ever have been childish playing. But that was before the Academy, before S.H.I.E.L.D., before Dr. Bruce Banner and Iron Man. Now the engineer, the lab geek, the techno freak can be whatever - whoever - they want. And he wants to be the hero. 

He knows the rest of the team had expected him to freak out, to fall apart without her. After all, she's the one who'd dragged him into the field anyway, she's the one who'd declared it all adventure and opportunity and she's the one - she's the one he hadn't been able to save once already (because never mind the fact that he'd made the device to administer the anti-serum, never mind the fact that the anti-serum had worked, she'd jumped - Jemma had jumped and he hadn't been there to catch her). 

He knows the rest of the team had expected him to come apart at the seams no longer held together by Simmons's stitching, but he hadn't, because this is his chance, this is his day - he can be the hero now. He pours himself into his work, and by the time they've found where she is he's made at least twelve different weapons to disarm and dismantle anyone and anything that gets in his way, and this is without counting the very familiar looking body armor he's made to shield himself to get to her. 

He never thought he could be the hero growing up, but he was wrong. He's the hero. And he's coming for her.


End file.
